Born Without Hands. Wins Penmanship Award — Holt adoptee

On April 18th, Holt adoptee Annie Clark received the Nicholas Maxim Special Award for Excellent Penmanship — one of two awards the Zaner-Bloser language arts and reading company offers for students who have disabilities.

Born without hands, Annie has learned to write with a pencil wedged between her arms. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, Annie’s parents — Tom and Mary Ellen Clark — says this is also how their 7-year-old daughter feeds and dresses herself, cuts with scissors and even paints her toenails.

“Annie has always been very, very determined, very self-sufficient in dressing herself and feeding herself,” Mr. Clark told a Post-Gazette reporter. “She can ride a bike. She swims. She is just determined that there’s nothing she can’t do.”

Adopted from China in 2007, Annie is one of nine siblings in her family — six of whom her parents adopted through Holt. In addition to Annie, the Clarks adopted sons Travis and Talbot, 10, and Tyler, 18, all of whom are missing parts of their right forearm. They also have two other adopted daughters, Alyssa, 18, who also has Down syndrome, and Amelia, 4, who has an undiagnosed lesion on her leg. The Clarks have three biological children as well — Amanda, 29, Amy, 25 and Abbey, 21. Abbey was born with Down syndrome.

On Monday, the whole family will travel to Texas to appear on the Glenn Beck show!

For her great achievement, Annie received a trophy “nearly half her height,” $1,000 and prizes awarded during a surprise assembly at her school. Congratulations Annie!

To read the full article about Annie in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, click here.